m -serm, 


REV.  DR.  BARTLETT’S 

SERMON 


BEFORE  THE 

AMERICAN  BOARD  OF  COMMISSIONERS  FOR 
FOREIGN  MISSIONS, 

AT  THE 

ANNUAL  MEETING,  IN  NEW  HAVEN,  CT. 
OCTOBER  1,  1872. 


Z\)t  Pibinc  f orccb  of  tfjc  45ospcl 


A SERMON 


BEFORE  THE 

AMERICAN  BOARD  OF  COMMISSIONERS 
FOR  FOREIGN  MISSIONS 


AT  THE 


ANNUAL  MEETING  IN  NEW  HAVEN,  CT. 
OCTOBER  i,  1872 


BY 

SAMUEL  C.  BARTLETT,  D.  D. 

PROFESSOR  IN  CHICAGO  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


CAMBRIDGE 

^rinteti  at  tfjc  nibcrssi&c 

1872 


SERMON. 


“ And  I,  brethren,  when  I came  to  you,  came  not  with  excellency  of  speech  or  of 
wisdom,  declaring  unto  you  the  testimony  of  God.  For  I determined  not  to  know 
anything  among  you,  save  Jesus  Christ,  and  him  crucified.  And  I was  with  you  in 
weakness,  and  in  fear,  and  in  much  trembling.  And  my  speech  and  my  preaching 
was  not  with  enticing  words  of  man’s  wisdom,  but  in  demonstration  of  the  Spirit, 
and  of  power.  That  your  faith  should  not  stand  in  the  wisdom  of  men,  but  in  the 
power  of  God.”  — I Cor.  ii.  1-5. 

The  sentiment  is  completed  and  compacted  by  the  same 
apostle,  thus  : — 

“ For  he  that  wrought  effectually  in  Peter  to  the  apostleship  of  the  circumcision, 
the  same  was  mighty  in  me  toward  the  Gentiles.”  — Gal.  ii.  S. 

Here  is  the  whole  theory  of  the  early  success  of  the  gospel. 
In  the  acknowledged  impotence  of  human  teachings,  comes 
“the  testimony  of  God.”  In  place  of  the  world’s  “wisdom” 
stands  the  one  absorbing  knowledge  of  “ Christ  crucified.”  In- 
stead of  merely  “ persuasive  words  ” of  brilliant  rhetoric  or  pro- 
foundest  logic,  all  the  utterances,  both  “ speech  and  preaching,” 
are  freighted  with  the  “ demonstration  of  the  spirit.”  In  the 
midst  of  human  “ weakness,  fear,  and  much  trembling  ” shines 
forth  the  power  of  God,  working  effectually  in  Peter  among  the 
Jews,  and  mighty  in  Paul  toward  the  Gentiles. 

All  the  surface  changes  of  society  leave  the  fundamental 
relation  of  Christ’s  kingdom  to  the  world  unaltered.  It  is  no 
small  privilege  to  live  in  a time  when  Christianity  is  popular 
and  powerful  ; when  its  great  Author  is  the  subject  of  men’s 
fair  speeches,  and  his  outward  realm  includes  the  great  empires ; 
w'hen  wealth  and  fashion  throng  its  costly  temples  ; when  its 
messengers  charter  the  power-press,  and  London  bankers  honor 
the  drafts  of  its  missionary  boards.  But,  for  all  this,  the  offense 
of  the  cross  has  not  ceased,  nor  the  difficulty  of  maintaining 
and  spreading  a pure  gospel  diminished.  It  is  in  times  like 


4 


THE  DIVINE  FORCES  OF  THE  GOSPEL. 


these  that  faith  is  sorely  tempted  to  surrender  unto  sight  ; that 
science  pushes  far  away  the  living  God  ; and  the  power  of  the 
spirit  is  superseded  by  the  reign  of  law.  At  such  times,  the 
Church  and  her  ministry  “ breathe  in  tainted  air.”  The  gospel 
in  solution  tends  to  become  a gospel  in  dilution.  Fashion  and 
religion  give  mutual  bonds  of  good  behavior,  and  the  line  be- 
tween the  Church  and  the  world  fades  out  in  a penumbra.  Cul- 
ture chills  fervor  ; or  fervid  men  exalt  peace  and  union  above 
truth  and  purity.  Christian  youth,  nursed  in  luxury,  lose  the 
very  conception  of  Christian  heroism.  It  is  a time  when  Rob- 
ertson and  Brooke,  in  England,  can  find  the  whole  power  of 
prayer  to  consist  in  its  influence  on  the  praying  heart,  and  the 
difference  between  the  inspiration  of  Wordsworth’s  “ Excur- 
sion ” and  of  Paul’s  Epistles,  to  be  one  of  degree  and  not  of 
kind  ; when  the  popular  American  pulpit  sometimes  knows  not 
what  to  say  of  the  men  “ who  believe  neither  the  Old  Testament 
or  the  New,”  but  abound  in  the  charities  of  life ; and  when  well- 
meaning  Christians  magnify  the  possibilities  of  heathen  salvation 
into  probabilities.  It  is  the  era  for  “ Theodicies,”  and  “ Sciences 
of  Religion,”  and  “ Comparative  Theologies  ” ; an  age  when  men 
can  discover  ten  Great  Religions,  — perchance  eleven. 

Surrounded  thus  by  the  glory  of  secularism,  we  are  called,  at 
times,  to  take  our  bearings  and  look  forth  for  the  pole-star  of 
our  heavens.  Permit  me,  therefore,  fathers  and  brethren,  to 
strike  once  more  the  key-note  of  the  whole  Christian  enterprise 
at  home  and  abroad,  and  to  recall  to  your  thoughts  and  mine 
this  primal  truth  : — 

The  Divine  forces  which  centre  in  the  Gospel  of  Christ 

ARE  THE  ONLY  ULTIMATE  RELIANCE  FOR  THE  WORLD’S  CONVER- 
SION. 

By  divine  forces,  I mean  those  which  come  direct  from  God  ; 
which,  though  they  act  in  nature  and  through  man,  are  behind 
nature  and  above  humanity,  — supernatural  and  superhuman. 
When  the  Church  fails  chiefly  to  invoke  these  influences,  her 
most  magnificent  appliances  are  but  a mechanism,  and  her  own 
beautiful  form  is  a corpse.  These  things  need  not  all  be  speci- 
fied in  technical  detail.  The  text  sketches  them  in  bold  outline, 
the  expiatory  offering  of  the  Son  of  God,  recorded  in  sacred 
Scriptures  inspired  of  God,  and  applied  by  the  Spirit  of  God  to 


THE  DIVINE  FORCES  OF  THE  GOSPEL. 


5 


the  regeneration  of  sinful  hearts  and  the  holy  energizing  of  hu- 
man lives,  through  institutions  appointed  and  preserved  by  God, 
and  by  God  made  effectual  to  overcome  the  universal  repug- 
nance to  truth  and  duty.  That  here  must  be  our  reliance  would 
seem  clear, — 

First,  from  the  emergency  of  the  case.  After  all  sentimental 
dreams,  when  we  open  our  eyes  one  appalling  fact  stands  full  in 
view  : every  member  of  the  race  is  clearly  out  of  harmony  with 
the  God  of  holiness,  and  plainly  in  conflict  with  his  searching 
law.  The  Bible  did  not  make  it  so  ; it  finds  it  so.  I have  heard 
the  godless  man  of  business  preach  as  stern  a doctrine  of  de- 
pravity as  the  apostle  Taul.  And  so  radical  is  the  ruin,  that 
when  you  look  upon  the  new-born  child  in  his  cradle,  you  know 
that,  train  him  as  you  will,  in  the  bosom  of  refinement  and  love, 
none  the  less  certainly  will  he  go  estray.  Gravitation  is  no 
surer.  You  look  upon  the  stranger,  of  whose  existence  you 
never  knew  before,  and  you  assume  that  his  character  is  trav- 
ersed with  sin.  The  man  of  the  world  would  otherwise  scorn 
your  simplicity.  So  thorough-going  is  the  aversion  of  men  to 
God,  that  when  the  full  remedy  is  offered  them,  their  opposition 
to  being  saved  from  sin  long  seems*  and  often  proves,  uncon- 
querable. Nay,  it  seems  proved  by  fact,  that  the  forces  of  the 
gospel  are  needed  to  awaken  the  desire  to  be  saved  by  the  gos- 
pel. And  though  we  grant  that  the  presence  of  the  Redemptive 
Work  in  this  world  creates  a possibility  that  men  may  be  saved 
in  pagan  lands  ; and  though  we  conceive  that  for  Christ’s  sake 
God  may  accept  even  a potential  or  germ  faith,  — the  readiness 
to  believe,  — yet  in  the  whole  history  of  heathenism,  who  will 
recount  to  us  a score  of  undoubted  cases  where  that  potential 
faith  was  found  without  the  coming  of  the  gospel  ? 

When,  therefore,  we  look  forth  on  this  great  moral  Sahara, 
where  the  highest  moral  attainment  is  the  despairing  confession, 
“ I see  the  better  and  approve,  I pursue  the  worse,”  how  can  we 
fail  to  see,  that  where  the  whole  course  of  nature  has  but  led  to 
sin,  the  rescue  from  sin  must  be  out  of  the  course  of  nature  ; 
and  where  the  whole  race  are  fallen  together  into  the  pit,  the 
only  arm  to  save  is  the  arm  of  God.  Deliverance,  if  it  come  at 
all,  springs  not  from  earth,  but  from  heaven. 


6 


THE  DIVINE  FORCES  OF  THE  GOSPEL. 


But  we  are  persuaded  of  the  same  truth,  secondly,  by  the 
manifest  inadequacy  of  human  agencies  to  accomplish  the  end. 

It  would  seem  needless  to  speak  of  the  ordinary  influences  of 
civilization  and  culture,  for  the  reason  that  at  their  highest  scope 
they  never  aim  at  the  reconciliation  of  man  to  God.  But  since 
so  many  are  still  ready  to  propose  the  plough,  the  anvil,  the 
loom,  and  the  press,  as  at  least  needful  pioneers  of  Christianity, 
we  may  well  take  notice,  in  passing,  that  but  for  some  higher 
influence  than  has  yet  shown  itself  in  such  schemers,  no  man 
can  be  found  to  send,  much  less  to  carry,  the  plough  and  the 
press  to  the  brutalized.  Loudly  and  vainly  has  the  missionary 
called  on  them  for  these  magic  implements.  Nor  have  I ever 
read  of  an  instance,  outside  of  Christianity,  where  mere  culture 
has  sent  forth  its  choicest  men  and  women  to  raise  the  degraded 
races.  And  when  the  contact  has  been  made  providentially,  it 
has  been  more  commonly  the  fact  that  the  solitary  white  man 
has  sunk  toward  the  level  of  the  savage,  and  that  in  the  fuller 
contact  of  races  the  savage  has  caught  chiefly  the  vices  of  his 
superior,  — his  drunkenness,  profanity,  and  gambling. 

Civilization  and  culture  have,  no  doubt,  some  diffusive  force, 
but,  alas,  in  conflict  with  human  depravity  they  have  no  self-per- 
petuating power.  After  all  our  declarations  upon  the  progress 
of  the  race,  it  remains,  perhaps,  to  be  proved,  that  there  is  any 
line  of  sure,  permanent  progress  for  the  race,  except  along  the 
line  of  revealed  religion.  In  the  long  run,  human  depravity 
outstrips  human  intellect  and  worries  it  down.  Nearly  all  that 
survived  the  wreck  of  classic  culture,  was  wafted  down  in  the 
ark  of  the  gospel.  Scattered  through  the  world  are  indica- 
tions which  fairly  raise  the  question,  whether  the  race  as  a whole 
has  not  fallen  away  from  a primitive  moral  light,  just  in  propor- 
tion as  it  has  receded  in  time  and  space  from  its  original  source. 
There  are  traditions  of  that  golden  age,  and  old  mythologies  with 
gleams  of  lost  expression  on  their  now  hideous  features,  universal 
memories  of  the  great  deluge,  tattered  theologies,  discarded 
moralities,  dead  languages,  and  extinct  civilizations.  The  splen- 
did Sanscrit  speech,  all  buried  beneath  the  debris  of  modern 
Hindooism,  is  a more  startling  phenomenon  than  those  vast 
western  mounds  and  ancient  copper  mines  that  lay  beneath  the 
trail  of  the  unconscious  moccasin.  But  be  these  things  as  they 


THE  DIVINE  FORCES  OF  THE  GOSPEL. 


7 


may,  what  corruptions  of  society  may  underlie  the  glory  of  cul- 
ture, he  who  cannot  read  in  Martial,  Juvenal,  or  Catullus,  may 
see  in  Pompeii.  And  of  at  least  the  average  tendencies  of  un- 
sanctified commerce,  the  world  has  had  some  evidence  in  the 
East  India  Company’s  relation  to  Hindoo  idolatry,  in  the  African 
slave  trade,  in  American  debauchery  of  the  Indian  tribes,  in  the 
opium  war  with  .China,  and  in  the  white  man’s  hellish  pollution, 
that  fought  fifty  years  with  the  missionary  for  the  Pacific 
Islands. 

But  when  we  speak  of  conversion,  or  even  reformation  from 
vice,  we  sound  a deeper  chasm.  What  human  power  can  rescue 
the  individual  once  thoroughly  sold  under  sin  ? To  the  slave  of 
the  cup  — some  Burns,  or  Poe,  or  Hartley  Coleridge  — how  often 
have  wife,  children,  and  friends,  wealth  and  fair  fame,  yea,  life 
itself,  come  pleading  in  vain.  How  every  consideration  of  pru- 
dence and  national  well-being  goes  down  before  some  great  or- 
ganic sin,  till  half  a nation  hugs  the  chains  of  slavery  with  its 
heart-strings,  and  finds  deliverance  only  in  the  frenzy  of  suicidal 
war ! 

And  when  we  deal  no  longer  with  individual  sins,  but  with 
the  bitter  root  and  essence  of  all  sin,  how  desperate  the  struggle. 
The  very  gospel  then  seems  destined  to  be  the  victim  and  not 
the  victor.  No  more  forlorn  prospect  is  conceivable,  humanly 
viewed,  than  that  of  Christ’s  kingdom  in  the  presence  of  the 
kingdoms  of  the  world.  A babe  lying  in  a village  stall  at  Beth- 
lehem, while  a king  and  his  councillors  are  deciding  its  fate  at 
the  capital,  is  its  standing  type.  It  is  the  still  small  voice  amid 
the  universal  uproar  ; straggling  workers  against  vast  combina- 
tions ; and  the  promise  of  the  earth’s  inheritance,  not  to  the 
world’s  hero,  “ impiger,  iracundus,  inexorabilis,  acer,”  but  to  the 
meek  and  lowly.  It  is  a universal  assault  on  human  nature  in 
its  stronghold,  with  an  old  book  and  an  invisible  spirit. 

Viewed  on  the  human  side,  the  vital  problem  of  the  Church  is 
simply  hopeless.  Sydney  Smith  so  far  was  right,  when  he  pro- 
nounced the  difficulties  in  India  “insuperable.”  Martyn  said 
substantially  the  same,  when  he  likened  the  conversion  of  the 
Hindoo  to  the  “ resurrection  of  a dead  body.”  The  case  cannot 
be  over-stated,  and  it  is  everywhere  substantially  alike.  How 
often  does  the  young  convert,  all  aglow  with  Christ’s  love,  feel 


8 


THE  DIVINE  FORCES  OF  THE  GOSPEI. 


persuaded  that  he  can  so  tell  the  wonderful  story  to  his  com- 
rades that  they  too  must  believe.  And  how  sadly  does  he  learn 
his  impotence.  I remember  well  the  lamentation  of  a distin- 
guished teacher,  a man  of  rare  intellect,  and  a most  accom- 
plished speaker,  that  in  more  than  twenty  years  of  preaching  in 
various  pulpits,  he  knew  not  that  he  had  persuaded  one  soul  to 
Christ.  All  his  eloquence  had  halted  at  the  ear.  In  truth,  no 
class  of  men  so  profoundly  comprehend  the  unspeakable  barriers 
that  lie  in  the  pathway  of  Christ’s  chariot,  as  the  ministers  of  the 
gospel.  They  know  full  well  the  apathy  of  the  masses,  the  pity- 
ing incredulity  of  the  great,  the  mighty  ambitions  of  mature  life, 
the  enticements  that  draw  the  young  from  the  master’s  service, 
the  errors  and  defections  of  Christian  leaders,  the  unworthy 
membership  of  the  churches,  — the  gnarled  and  twisted  sticks 
and  shapeless  stones  with  which  Christ  must  build  his  temple, 
both  abroad  and  at  home.  Xavier,  indeed,  in  ten  years,  rushed 
from  India  to  Japan,  ringing  his  bell  and  scattering  baptismal 
water  till  he  had  "made  Christians”  of  a million  persons.  But 
it  was  his  own  comment  on  his  own  work,  “ If  you  will  search 
India  through,  you  will  find  that  few  will  reach  heaven  but  those 
who  depart  this  life  under  fourteen  years  of  age,  with  their  bap- 
tismal innocence  still  upon  them.”  _ Never  were  human  force 
and  fortitude  strained  to  a higher  tension  than  by  the  devoted 
band  of  Jesuits,  who,  a hundred  years  later,  attempted  to  con- 
vert the  native  tribes  in  Canada.  They  lived  in  the  filthy  wig- 
wam, or  slept  on  the  uncovered  ground,  or  roamed  and  suffered 
with  the  hunters.  They  travelled  on  snow-shoes,  tugged  canoes 
and  burdens  round  portages,  were  jeered  at  by  the  sorcerers 
and  threatened  by  the  warriors.  They  went  wet  and  hungry 
and  frost-bitten.  They  sickened  with  exposure  and  toil  ; but 
they  would  not  die  of  disease.  The  martyr’s  crown  encircled 
the  heads  of  Daniel,  Lallemant,  Brdbeuf,  Gamier,  Chabanel, 
Jogues,  Buteau,  and  Garreau.  Their  zeal  and  self-abnegation 
were  as  matchless  as  their  failure  was  complete.  That  failure, 
for  which  their  Boston  historian,  in  1867,  can  find  no  deeper 
cause  than  “ the  guns  and  tomahawks  of  the  Iroquois,”  lay 
clearly  in  the  system  they  represented,  and  broke  on  their  de- 
voted heads  as  a direct  retribution  for  the  hollow  religion  they 
bore.  It  was  Jesuit  principle,  avowed  by  Father  LeCaron,  that 


THE  DIVINE  FORCES  OF  THE  GOSPEL. 


9 


these  “infidels  needed  but  a drop  of  water  to  make  them  chil- 
dren of  God,”  changing  “ little  Indians  into  little  angels.”  It  was 
Jesuit  practice  to  apply  that  drop  deceitfully,  and  to  inform  the 
scowling  father  that  they  were  only  giving  a little  sweetened 
water  to  drink.  They  pledged  themselves  to  help  the  Hurons 
in  all  their  wars  ; and  they  impressed  “ the  mysteries  of  the 
faith,”  by  the  wonderful  performances  of  a striking  clock,  a 
prism,  a magnet,  and  a microscope,  together  with  horrible  paint- 
ings of  devils  and  lost  souls,  and  with  grand  religious  tableaux 
and  parades.  They  told  the  Algonquin  chief,  that  God’s  ways 
with  friends  and  foes  were  the  same  as  his  own  ; and  while  they 
resisted  the  eating  of  prisoners,  they  made  but  feeble  remon- 
strances against  the  killing  and  torture.  But  they  reaped  as 
they  sowed.  All  their  dangers  and  their  martyrdoms,  whether 
from  Hurons,  Mohawks,  or  Iroquois,  were  on  the  definite  charge 
of  being  sorcerers,  or  in  league  with  hostile  tribes.  And  it  was 
a fearful  retribution  when  their  own  water-made  Christians  not 
only  shed  their  blood,  but  heaped  their  own  doctrines  as  coals  of 
fire  on  their  heads.  It  was  a renegade  Huron  convert  who  mur- 
dered the  priest  Chabanel  and  threw  him  into  the  river  ; and 
when  Lallemant  and  the  dauntless  Brebeuf  stood  unflinching  at 
the  stake,  it  was  apostate  Hurons  who  taught  the  Iroquois  to 
add  new  keenness  to  their  fiendish  tortures,  and  to  aggravate 
them  with  still  more  fiendish  taunts.  “ We  baptize  you,”  said 
they,  as  they  poured  boiling  water  slowly  over  their  heads,  “ we 
baptize  you  that  you  may  be  happy  in  heaven,  for  none  can  be 
saved  without  a good  baptism.”  And  as  they  lacerated  Brebeuf s 
athletic  form,  in  modes  too  awful  to  relate,  they  called  out  to 
him,  “You  told  us  that  the  more  one  suffers  on  earth  the  hap- 
pier he  is  in  heaven.  We  torment  you  because  we  love  you.” 
“ That  such  beings  could  have  been  civilized,”  exclaims  the  Bos- 
ton historian,  “ is  scarcely  possible.”  And  from  his  stand-point 
he  spoke  well.  We  accept  the  verdict.  To  Jesuit  Christianity 
it  was  impossible,  and  to  any  form  of  humanitarian  Christianity 
similar  obstacles  lie  everywhere.  When  the  humanitarian  relig- 
ion of  America  at  length,  like  a century  plant,  blossomed  out 
into  one  solitary  missionary  to  the  Hindoos,  he  was  speedily  ab- 
sorbed, not  by  “ Great  Brahm,”  but  by  the  Brahmo  Somaj  ; and 
his  successor  could  not  tell  whether  it  was  well  with  him  or  no. 


IO 


THE  DIVINE  FORCES  OF  THE  GOSPEL. 


It  would  seem  that  no  subtle  argument  can  be  called  for,  to 
show  how  helpless  are  all  merely  human  agencies  to  work  out 
that  internal  purity,  disinterestedness  and  love,  and  that  wide 
and  deep  reign  of  inner  and  outer  righteousness,  which  the  gos- 
pel commands,  and  the  world  has  pronounced  Utopian.  By  no 
conceivable  stratagem  can  the  teacher  or  the  preacher  eke  out 
the  lack  of  the  life  from  God,  or  animate  his  clay  images  with 
some  human  spark.  Had  these  things  some  potency,  the  world 
can  beat  him  at  his  own  weapons.  His  jocular  Christianity  is 
not  half  so  attractive  for  the  crowd  as  the  true  comedy.  The 
most  artistic  performances  of  the  church  are  inferior  to  the 
opera.  All  the  sugar-coated  panaceas,  the  consecrated  billiards, 
the  church  kitchens  and  religious  merry-makings  — if  these  be 
chief  things  — are  as  nothing  beside  the  infinite  allurements  of 
the  world.  In  the  “ study  of  human  nature,”  on  its  weak  side 
or  its  strong,  the  Protestant  Jesuit  will  never  approach  the  fol- 
lowers of  Loyola ; while,  alas,  when  all  has  been  learned  that 
can  be  learned  of  human  nature,  it  is  still  the  desperate  prob- 
lem, not  how  to  humor,  but  to  reverse  its  whole  moral  drift.  The 
Boston  historian  in  1867,  may  be  supposed  to  represent  the 
average  judgment  of  the  world  when  he  wrote,  “As  for  the  re- 
ligion which  the  Jesuit  taught  them  (the  Indians),  however 
Protestants  may  carp  at  it,  it  was  the  only  form  of  Christianity 
likely  to  take  root  in  their  crude  and  barbarous  natures.”  If  we 
look  for  some  skillful  apparatus  of  propagandism,  no  human  ma- 
chinery will  ever  surpass  the  vast  and  varied  resources  of  Rome. 
To  that  we  may  surrender  in  advance.  If  we  are  directed  to 
the  constant  and  vehement  reiteration  of  the  great  laws  of  lofty 
morality  in  all  the  relations  of  life,  we  grieve  to  see  that  the  one 
grand  lack  is  not  of  the  knowledge  but  the  will,  of  the  power 
that  shall  lift  character  and  life  into  that  higher  plane.  Common 
preachers  can  do  little  with  the  Christless  morality  with  which 
Thomas  Chalmers,  at  Kilmany,  could  do  nothing.  We  admit 
that  the  ethics  of  the  Scriptures  can  largely  be  culled  out  from 
the  maxims  of  the  heathen  ; that  Confucius  taught  the  negative 
side  of  the  golden  rule  ; that  Plato  held  that  a good  man  will 
injure  neither  friend  nor  enemy  ; and  that  Seneca  uttered  max- 
ims which  remind  us  of  Paul.  But  the  perpetual,  fatal  want, 
was  of  some  influence  which  should  energize  those  dead  pre- 


THE  DIVINE  FORCES  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  II 

cepts  into  life,  in  so  much  as  a single  soul ; so  that,  while  Sen- 
eca was  echoing  the  maxims  of  Paul,  he  was  pandering  to  the 
foulest  crimes  of  Nero.  Universally,  when  fallen  man  has  been 
made  most  clearly  to  see  and  feel  his  obligations  to  God,  like 
that  old  man  at  Tientsin,  the  highest  point  to  which  he  has 
risen  has  been  the  desperate  call,  “ O wretched  man,  who  shall 
deliver  me  from  the  body  of  this  death  ? ” And  the  one  wail 
that  has  risen  everywhere  from  the  messenger  of  the  Cross,  just 
so  soon  as  he  has  learned  the  bottomless  depth  of  the  work  be- 
fore him,  has  been  the  almost  despairing  cry,  “ Who  is  sufficient 
for  these  things  ? ” And  he  answers  at  length  his  own  question, 
“ Our  sufficiency  is  of  God.” 

And  we  are  brought  directly  to  contemplate  the  fact  that,  — 

Thirdly,  the  Divine  influences  that  centre  in  the  gospel  of 
Christ  prove  adequate  to  meet  every  emergency  in  the  effort  to 
bring  men  into  harmony  with  God.  Here  again  my  theme, 
thank  God,  calls  for  no  subtleties  or  novelties,  but  for  a fresh 
recurrence  to  the  ever-open  secret  of  the  kingdom,  — truths  that 
shine  by  their  own  historic  light. 

On  this  direct  effluence  of  God’s  Spirit  does  the  working 
church  securely  rest  for  her  own  life  and  vigor.  By  all  the  laws 
of  probability,  in  the  tremendous  and  one-sided  conflict  of  forces 
for  eighteen  hundred  years,  the  church  should  have  died  a hun- 
dred deaths.  A weary  catalogue  of  kings  and  wits  and  scholars 
have  made  ready  the  apparatus  of  her  execution.  Fourteen  cen- 
turies ago  the  very  year  was  set  for  her  decease  ; and  from  that 
time  to  this  has  her  requiem  perpetually  been  sung.  But  not 
there  has  been  the  chief  peril.  All  outward  combinations  have 
been  as  nothing  to  the  dangers  within.  The  weakness  and 
wrong-headedness  of  her  own  membership,  with  their  freaks 
and  prejudices  and  bickerings  and  animosities  and  scandals, 
their  icy  intellect,  their  headlong  passions,  their  unconsecrated, 
intractable  wealth,  their  uncontrollable  greatness,  their  reckless 
vanities  and  prides,  their  narrowness  and  sensuousness  of  thought 
and  aim  and  life  ; the  multiform  follies  of  her  leaders,  with  their 
gross  defections,  their  imprudencies,  their  heresies,  their  rival- 
ries, their  low  ambitions,  their  puerilities  and  platitudes,  and 
emasculations  of  their  glorious  message  ; the  popularities  and 
compromises  that  muffle  the  edge  of  the  gospel ; the  rationalism 


12 


THE  DIVINE  FORCES  OF  THE  GOSPEL. 


that  would  dry  up  the  life-blood  of  her  faith  ; the  selfishness, 
often  national  or  continental,  that  would  bind  the  hands  of  her 
beneficence  ; the  material  civilization  and  earth-born  hopes  that 
ensnare  her  young  men  ; these  are  evermore,  and  now  more 
than  ever,  if  possible,  the  great  perils  of  the  church.  Constant 
and  mighty  as  are  the  dangers,  mightier  is  the  power  that  averts 
them.  The  modern  church,  like  the  ancient,  is  the  bush  that 
burns  and  is  not  consumed.  Rather  she  is  that  sinking  ship  on 
lake  Gennesaret,  which  yet,  against  wind  and  wave,  without  oar 
or  sail,  was  borne  to  the  land  whither  they  went,  when  he  that 
walked  and  stilled  the  waters  stepped  on  deck. 

Often  there  have  been  times  when,  to  the  eye  of  man,  all  seemed 
lost,  but  to  God’s  eye  all  was  safe.  Some  Elijah,  roaming  in  the 
wilderness,  mournfully  exclaims,  “ I,  even  I only,  am  left,”  to 
whom  God  can  say,  “Yet  have  I left  seven  thousand.”  Or  the 
eye  looks  back  over  the  dreary  course  of  those  Dark  Ages,  when 
the  whole  church  seemed  sunk  in  formalism  and  falsehood  ; but 
suddenly  it  sees  a city  set  on  a hill,  a pure  church  all  safely 
nestled  on  the  high  Alps,  where  the  snows  are  crimsoned  with 
the  slaughters  of  three  hundred  years,  and  watches  her  colpor- 
teurs winding  their  way  through  Europe,  with  knapsack  on  back, 
to  castle  halls  and  cottage  doors,  and  listens  to  the  voice,  which, 
with  rings  and  robes,  offers  also  the  pearl  of  great  price.  Or,  an 
old  convent  wall  is  torn  away  in  modern  times,  and  reveals  the 
writing  of  five  hundred  years  ago,  where  some  sweet  soul,  from 
the  very  bosom  of  Romanism,  was  pouring  out  pure  devotion  to 
the  Lamb  of  God,  And  we  watch  these  flickering  lights  dis- 
perse and  approach,  till  they  join  in  one  great  guiding  star  that 
came  and  stood  over  the  place  where  the  child  Jesus  was.  We 
behold  the  flame  of  piety  dying  steadily  down  in  our  ancestral 
land  while  Butler  and  Bingham  were  marshaling  the  evidences, 
till  God  sent  Whitefield  and  Wesley,  and  filled  England  and 
America  with  spiritual  religion  ; and  while  seven  hundred  and 
six  books  and  pamphlets  against  Methodism,  it  is  said,  now  lie 
on  the  shelves  of  the  Astor  Library,  behold  Methodism  itself 
sweep  onward  through  the  land.  In  the  Metropolis  of  New 
England,  wealth,  fashion,  learning,  social  culture,  and  legal  lore, 
send  their  long  tentacles  around  and  through  all  the  old  churches 
of  the  Puritans,  to  bear  them,  and  the  whoie  body  to  which  they 


THE  DIVINE  FORCES  OF  THE  GOSPEL. 


13 


belong,  away  to  another  faith.  But  they  only  purify  the  church 
and  lift  the  load  from  all  her  activities.  A local  church  in  the 
Old  Commonwealth  seems  wholly  seared  by  the  heat  of  party 
strife,  when,  lo,  the  sweetest  refreshing  of  the  Holy  Ghost  falls 
upon  the  impenitent  all  around  ; and  when  the  astonished 
brethren  look  forth  for  the  unknown  cause,  they  find  that  a fer- 
vent cry  had  been  going  up  to  the  God  of  grace  from  a little  band 
of  praying  women,  of  whom  one  was  she  who  breathed  out  of 

her  own  heart  for  the  church  universal  the  strain, 

7 • 

“ I love  to  steal  awhile  away,” 

and  another  was  fellow-counsellor  with  Mary  Lyon  in  founding 
that  seminary,  also  for  the  church  universal,  at  South  Hadley. 
A godless  father  determines  that  his  beautiful  daughter  shall 
never  be  dragged  away  from  the  gayeties  of  life  to  the  gloom  of 
religion ; but  the  Spirit  steals  in  through  massive  walls,  and  lace 
and  damask  curtains,  and  she  adopts  the  song, 

“Jesus,  I my  cross  have  taken. 

All  to  leave  and  follow  thee.” 

And  so  God  keeps  alive  and  alert  his  church.  Here  are  in- 
fluences which  no  wisdom  can  forestall,  no  combination  can 
crush,  no  vigilance  exclude.  It  is  a Spirit  that  chains  cannot 
bind,  that  sword  and  musket  cannot  kill.  And  so  long  as  God 
yields  this  help,  no  outward  foe  is  formidable.  In  our  day,  a 
brilliant  and  resolute  man  wrote  in  his  journal,  “ I will  study 
seven  or  eight  months  in  the  year,  and  four  or  five  months  I will 
go  about  and  preach  and  lecture,  in  city  and  glen,  by  the  road- 
side or  field-side,  or  wherever  men  and  women  can  be  found.  I 
will  go  eastward  and  westward  and  southward  and  northward, 
and  if  this  New  England  orthodoxy  does  not  come  to  the 
ground,  then  it  shall  be  because  it  has  more  in  it  than  I have 
ever  found.”  He  kept  his  word.  And  what  a stir  he  seemed 
to  be  making,  as  crowds  followed  him  to  the  Music  Hall  to  hear 
his  bitter  denunciations,  or  to  the  neutral  lecture-room  to  hear 
his  perpetual  sneers.  But  he  passed  away,  and  religion  moved 
right  on.  Not  a church  was  broken  up  ; God’s  spirit  came 
down  ; orthodoxy  still  lived.  It  was  like  the  dropping  of  a stone 
into  our  broad  inland  lake,  — a splash,  a foam,  a ripple,  fading 
slowly  away  ; and  the  broad  placid  lake  lies  there  still. 


14  THE  DIVINE  FORCES  OF  THE  GOSPEL. 


To  one  who  has  traced  the  track  of  the  church  all  the  way, 
through  her  heresies  and  follies  and  wrongs,  and  who  looks 
behind  the  scenes  now,  it  is  a marvel  that  she  has  not  perished 
from  inner  corruption.  It  is  God’s  standing  miracle  to  have  kept 
the  life  beating  and  bounding  in  so  wretched  a frame.  No  less 
wonderful  is  the  divine  energy  which  makes  the  message  she 
bears — a message  so  unpalatable  to  human  nature — yet  lay 
hold  upon  the  worldly  heart.  As  against  the  infinite  seductions 
of  Romanism,  and  Ritualism,  and  Sentimentalism,  and  Ration- 
alism, and  open  Skepticism,  the  life  and  power  of  Puritanism  is 
a phenomena  inexplicable  save  by  the  presence  of  God  in  it. 
The  King’s  arrows  are  sharp.'  The  divine  word  without  and  the 
divine  witness  within  respond  unto  each  other ; “ Deep  calleth 
unto  deep.”  And  thus,  while  in  the  far  East,  Osman  Bey,  the 
Turk,  discerned  the  Protestantism  which  effectually  preaches  a 
gospel  of  honesty  to  his  tenants,  and  himself  rented  a house  for 
its  preacher  ; so  in  the  far  West,  the  shrewd  but  wicked  Congress- 
man, when  solicited  by  a wily  heretic  for  aid  in  building  a church, 
— “a  church,”  said  he,  “ that  will  receive  you  to  its  member- 
ship,” — instantly  replied,  “ Ah,  there  is  the  curse  of  it.  I will 
give  no  money  to  a church  that  will  include  such  men  as  you 
and  I.”  But  for  the  sustaining  fact  that  God  gave  the  doctrine 
and  God  gives  it  its  weight  and  edge,  its  winning  light  and  its 
melting  heat,  evangelical  religion  might  retire  from  the  competi- 
tion in  despair.  No  man  knows  it  better  than  we  who  are  here 
assembled  to-night. 

It  is  the  same  energy  of  the  Holy  Ghost  that  gives  effective- 
ness to  a ministry  so  thoroughly  human  and  weak.  It  is  and 
has  always  been  the  cry,  that  the  world’s  genius  and  talent  are 
drawn  off  into  other  callings.  Nevertheless  the  ministry  suc- 
ceeds. Said  a wealthy  merchant,  “ I cannot  aid  your  Theologi- 
cal Seminary  because  there  are  so  few  successful  ministers.” 
“ Sir,”  was  the  reply,  “ you  have  watched  the  course  of  trade 
forty  years  on  Long  Wharf ; how  many  of  the  merchants  around 
you  in  that  time  have  succeeded  ?”  “ Not  more  than  fifteen  or 

twenty  per  cent.”  “ But  the  ministry  knows  no  such  terrific 
percentage  of  defeat  as  that,  it  has  no  twenty  per  cent,  of 
failure''  Thousands  of  men,  unknown  indeed  to  fame,  will 
reach  heaven  surrounded  by  a cloud  of  living  witnesses  to  their 
highest  success  in  the  noblest  work  given  to  man. 


THE  DIVINE  FORCES  OF  THE  GOSPEL. 


15 


hen  the  time  comes  for  some  great  aggressive  movement  of 
the  church,  how  manifestly  it  is  a divine  moving  which  guides 
and  moulds  all  to  the  central  purpose.  So  was  it  in  what  we 
may  call  the  great  mission  of  Puritanism  to  America.  At  a 
dozen  different  points  and  stages,  it  was  clear  defeat.  But  at  all 
those  points  — even  when  Robert  Cushman  wrote,  “all  things 
promiscuously  forerun  our  ruin  ” — God  was  organizing  defeat 
into  completer  victory.  So  was  it  in  this  enterprise  of  ours. 
Far  off  God’s  coming  shone.  Some  years  before,  revival  flames 
had  flashed  through  New  England,  not  like  a common  dawn,  but 
more  like  the  auroral  light  when  it  lies  all  around  the  horizon, 
before  it  streams  up  to  meet  in  a central  crown.  Those  were 
hallowed  times  in  Connecticut  when  the  Spirit  was  poured  out 
on  seventy  contiguous  parishes  around  this  centre  ; palmy  days 
in  Yale  College  when  Jeremiah  Evarts,  and  fifty-seven  other 
young  men  in  one  year,  joined  its  church.  Thoughts  of  foreign 
missions  were  stirring  in  the  hearts  of  Spring  at  Newburyport, 
Spaulding  at  Salem,  and  Worcester  at  Fitchburg.  Prayer  meet- 
ings for  the  world’s  conversion,  like  scattered  watch-fires,  were 
held  at  Hollis  and  elsewhere  ; and  a Christian  mother  at  Tor- 
ringford  was  talking  to  her  son  of  Eliot  and  Brainerd.  A little 
later,  Samuel  Nott,  in  his  solitude  at  Franklin,  was  meditating 
the  missionary  life  during  the  very  time  when  the  young  brethren 
at  Williamstown  were  forming  their  secret  missionary  league. 
The  first  four  petitioners  at  Bradford  to  be  sent  to  the  heathen, 
were  graduates  of  four  different  colleges.  Here  was  no  concert 
of  men,  but  a moving  of  God.  And  how  signally,  in  all  those 
opening  events,  do  we  read  a higher  wisdom  over-riding  the 
maxims  of  men.  Without  funds  or  popular  favor,  in  the  midst 
of  war,  embargo,  and  financial  distress,  against  the  great  com- 
mercial sovereignty  of  India,  except  as  God’s  promises  were 
sure,  that  enterprise  was  a chimera.  The  young  men  were 
plainly  told  by  Christian  ministers  that  their  project  “ savored  of 
infatuation.”  The  young  women  were  assured  by  friends  that 
their  scheme  was  “wild.”  The  Prudential  Committee  of  this 
Board  at  first  advised  the  missionaries  to  go  “ without  their 
wives.”  After  they  were  ordained,  your  peerless  Dwight  ex- 
pressed his  “ decided  disapprobation  ” of  the  Committee’s  action 
in  sending  them  forth.  But  there  remain  on  record  precious 


1 6 THE  DIVINE  FORCES  OF  THE  GOSPEL. 


memorials  from  every  member  of  that  little  band,  and  from  the 
Secretary  who  gave  them  their  commission,  that  they  went 
forth  in  the  strength  of  a simple  faith  in  the  promises  of  God  ; 
a faith  as  clear  and  bold  as  that  of  the  Father  of  the  Faithful, 
when  he  went  forth  “ not  knowing  whither  he  went.”  And  the 
God  of  infinite  resources  converted  their  seeming  imprudencies 
into  fertile  devices.  The  young  wives  in  their  weakness  became 
a tower  of  strength.  And  never  were  more  prolific  missionary 
seeds  planted  on  earth  than  when  the  girlish  form  of  Mrs. 
Newell  was  laid  to  rest  in  the  Isle  of  France,  and  the  worn-out 
frame  of  Mrs.  Judson  on  the  banks  of  the  Martaban. 

In  like  manner  has  our  whole  enterprise  fallen  back  upon  the 
mighty  workings  of  God  to  clear  the  way  for  our  missions,  from 
the  time  when  Hall  and  Nott  were  unexpectedly  informed  that 
the  interdict  in  India  was  removed,  the  day  when  Hopu  came 
back  in  his  boat,  shouting,  “ Oahu’s  idols  are  no  more,”  the 
almost  “miraculous”  procurement  of  the  Turkish  firman  for 
“ liberty  of  conscience,”  the  sudden  return  of  the  retreating  mis- 
sionaries to  Port  Natal,  down  to  the  edict  for  toleration,  which 
may  yet  appear  within  a twelvemonth  in  Japan. 

On  what  other  persuasive  power,  also,  has  this  enterprise 
steadily  relied  to  provide  the  men  afld  the  means  for  the  foreign 
field.  In  the  first  little  band  of  heroes  God  sent  the  first  scholars 
of  a class  at  Brown  University  and  a class  at  Williams’  College. 
The  treasury,  almost  empty  at  their  ordination,  was  filled  before 
they  sailed.  And  could  the  secret  history  of  all  their  devoted 
successors  be  fully  unfolded,  what  an  array  of  superhuman  in- 
fluences should  we  see,  overcoming  human  reluctances.  Mrs. 
Bridgman  is  led  to  China  solely  in  the  strength  of  the  121st 
Psalm.  Mrs.  Lloyd  sets  forth  from  her  city  home  for  the  Zulu 
kraal.  Perkins  leaves  his  tutorship,  and  rides  indomitable  on  a 
sick  bed  to  his  vessel.  Grant  cheerfully  forsakes  his  large  medi- 
cal practice,  Thompson  his  parish,  and  Stoddard  offers  of  the 
professor’s  chair.  And  what  long  chains  of  such  influences 
seem  riveted  in  every  link  from  above.  Perkins,  one  Sabbath 
morning,  far  away  in  Vermont,  fixes  his  eyes  and  his  heart  on  a 
young  preacher  for  his  coadjutor,  and  on  that  same  evening  in 
September  invites  him  to  go.  The  young  man,  Stoddard* 
changes  the  whole  plan  of  his  life,  and  in  December  is  amis- 


THE  DIVINE  FORCES  OF  THE  GOSPEL. 


17 


sionary  elect,  and  in  January  a missionary  ordained.  A young 
kindred  heart,  just  before  a perfect  stranger,  is  suddenly  and 
singularly  drawn  into  a holy  affinity  of  love  and  purpose,  and  in 
February  they  pass  hand  in  hahd  to  their  blessed  work.  In  that 
month  of  January,  Dr.  Perkins  sends  to  a ladies’  school  a request 
for  a teacher.  Of  forty  notes  thus  called  forth,  one  reads  simply, 
“ If  counted  worthy,  I should  be  willing  to  go.  F'idelia  Fiske.” 
But  her  health  is  not  firm.  Her  mother,  her  pastor,  her  friends 
object.  She  gives  it  up.  But  the  Lord  sends  back  the  call  by 
the  failure  of  the  substitute.  Every  objection  is  at  once  with- 
drawn, and  with  two  days’  preparation  she  also  is  on  her  way  to 
a labor  whose  record  is  on  earth  and  on  high.  How  divinely 
wise  and  blessed  was  the  sudden  conjunction.  Had  Fidelia  Fiske 
studied  for  years  on  the  one  question  where  to  make  her  mark 
for  God  and  for  woman,  she  would  have  seen  that  earth  had  no 
place  for  her  so  great  and  good  as  those  seventeen  years  at 
Oroomiah.  And  Stoddard  too  — well  does  his  biographer  relate 
the  remarkable  effect  of  his  decision,  in  giving  “ new  tone  and 
energy  to  his  daily  life.”  The  incoming  of  the  divine  afflatus 
seemed  to  expand  his  whole  being.  I knew  him  well,  for  he  was 
my  seminary  class-mate  and  friend,  but  I knew  him  chiefly  as 
a careful  scholar,  and  a man  gentle  in  spirit  and  precise  in 
manner.  We  had  no  conception  of  the  organizing,  toiling  power 
that  afterwards  shone  out  in  him  ; the  multifarious  activity,  the 
ardent  faith,  the  burning  zeal,  and  the  seraphic  eloquence  with 
which  he  thrilled  the  Christian  assemblies  of  America.  God 
was  mighty  in  him,  both  toward  the  Nestorian  and  the  Ameri- 
can. 

And  this  leads  me  to  add,  how  we  are  constrained  to  rest  upon 
the  life  from  God  to  develop  the  diviner  qualities  in  all  the  work- 
men and  the  work  ; and  how  thoroughly  that  dependence  is  jus- 
tified. In  the  midst  of  incessant  and  universal  infirmities  at 
home  and  abroad,  how  God  reduces  the  chafings  on  both  sides 
to  a minimum.  Never,  methinks,  did  human  machinery  work 
with  less  friction  than  our  beloved  Board.  There  are  dangers, 
and  excitements,  and  debts,  and  forebodings,  and  misunderstand- 
ings, and  complaints  ; but  God  brushes  them  away,  and  main- 
tains mutual  faith  and  confidence.  Near  three  hundred  mission- 
aries hang  trustingly  down  the  chasm,  and  the  brethren  at  home 


1 8 THE  DIVINE  FORCES  OF  THE  GOSPEL. 


faithfully  hold  the  rope.  Each  year  revolves  anew  the  question 
of  faith,  “ Will  the  means  be  forthcoming  ? ” and  each  year  they 
forlhcome. 

4 

It  sometimes  seems  as  though  God  gave  us  this  foreign  work, 
more  than  all  things  else  to  keep  alive  our  faith  and  dependence, 
and  to  develop  apostolic  graces  and  Christian  simplicity.  One 
wonders  what  we  shall  do  when  the  millennium  comes.  We  can 
never  too  fervently  thank  God  that  the  mission  work  began  at  a 
time  when  the  missionaries  carried  a pure  and  simple  gospel, 
unadulterated.  They  themselves  fed  on  its  angels’  food.  Their 
hopes  were  wholly  on  the  heavenly  promises.  Robert  Morrison 
baptized  his  first  convert  after  seven  years  in  China  ; and  our 
missionary  Adams  sat  down  to  the  Lord’s  table  with  one  native 
after  ten  years  in  Port  Natal.  Eight  years  in  Persia  wrought 
but  four  or  five  clear  conversions  ; in  Hawaii  but  about  fifty. 
The  London  missionaries  spent  ten  years  in  Madagascar  with- 
out one  known  conversion.  Full  fifteen  years  passed  away 
at  Tahiti  before  the  first  native  voice  was  heard  in  prayer. 
Commodore  Wilkes  kindly  offered  the  missionaries  at  Fiji  a pas- 
sage away  in  his  vessels,  because  their  enterprise  was  so  clearly 
hopeless.  Dr.  Thomas  is  said  to  have  labored  seventeen  years 
in  Bengal  before  his  first  baptism.  After  four  years  in  Burmah 
Judson  saw  his  first  inquirer  after  religion.  But  with  what  a 
majestic  faith  he  wrote  home,  “ I have  no  doubt  that  God  is  pre- 
paring the  way  for  the  conversion  of  Burmah  to  his  Son.” 
“ Whether  I live  or  die,”  said  the  sinking  Richards,  “ the  glori- 
ous predictions  concerning  the  triumphs  of  the  Cross  will  assur- 
edly be  accomplished.”  This  spirit  did  not  cease  with  the  first 
missionaries.  The  wish  of  Parsons,  — “ Lord  send  me  to  the 
ends  of  the  earth,”  “ I would  do  anything  to  live  and  die  a mis- 
sionary,” was  reiterated  by  Stoddard,  — “I  shall  be  happier  in 
Persia  than  America  ; there  let  me  live,  there  let  me  die.”  And 
the  early  message  of  Harriet  Newell,  “ Tell  them  I have  never 
regretted  leaving  my  native  land  for  the  cause  of  Christ,”  was 
echoed  sixty  years  later  by  the  dying  Penfield,  — “ We  made  no 
mistake  in  coming  to  India.  India  is  Christ’s  ; it  belongs  to 
Christ  ; it  is  all  Christ’s.”  Midway  between,  I see  the  toil-worn 
form  of  the  noble  Poor,  as  he  traversed  the  churches  a quarter 
of  a century  ago,  and  his  cheerful  call  still  sounds  in  my  ears, 


THE  DIVINE  FORCES  OF  THE  GOSPEL. 


19 


“ O come  with  us,  and  we  will  do  thee  good  ; for  the  Lord  hath 
spoken  good  concerning  Israel.”  And  in  such  souls  and  senti- 
timents,  wrought  by  the  spirit  of  God  in  the  bosom  of  his 
Church,  — 

" We  mark  her  goodly  battlements 
And  her  foundations  strong  ; 

We  hear  within  the  solemn  voice 
Of  her  unending  song.” 

To  no  other  source  than  the  same  unearthly  power  are  wc 
constrained  to  refer  the  steady  triumph  over  the  fearful  degra- 
dation of  pagan  character.  Our  God  has  made  that  gospel 
which  so  egregiously  failed  in  the  mouth  of  the  college  professor, 
a word  of  power  even  from  native  tongues.  Quala,  the  Karen, 
baptized  two  thousand  converts.  Blind  Bartimeus  led  many  a 
Hawaiian  to  Christ.  Blind  John  Concordance  first  saw  how  to 
raise  the  indolent  and  covetous  Armenians  to  an  almost  unpar- 
alleled beneficence.  The  missionaries  were  divinely  taught  to 
loosen  their  early  dependence  on  books  and  schools,  and  to  learn 
that  by  the  foolishness  of  preaching  the  Spirit  reaches  the  heart. 
How  marvelous,  to  the  thoughtful  mind,  are  those  scenes  when 
the  Spirit  came  down  simultaneously  on  the  two  schools  in  Per- 
sia, without  contact  ; or  when,  in  Hawaii,  in  three  separate  isl- 
ands, without  communication,  the  heavenly  dew  descended,  to 
the  amazement  of  the  missionaries  ; or  when  the  grace  of  God 
swept  through  a whole  prison  full  of  Indian  convicts  and  the 
encampment  of  their  families  without.  And  how  precisely  like 
the  workings  of  the  same  Spirit  in  the  best  revivals  in  the  home 
churches ! The  same  deep  sense  of  sin,  the  same  despair  of 
human  help,  .the  same  bounding  to  the  bosom  of  Christ,  the 
same  peace  and  joy,  the  same  reconstructed  life,  and  the  same 
serene  or  joyful  death.  Behold  the  epitome  in  the  history  of 
Guergis,  the  Koofd.  A rough,  vile  mountaineer,  armed  with 
gun  and  dagger,  brings  his  daughter  to  school,  and  wishes  to 
carry  her  very  clothing  back  to  the  mountains.  On  one  occa- 
sion he  blunders  into  a revival.  He  opposes,  and  mocks,  and 
laughs,  hour  after  hour.  Sabbath  noon,  one  parting  shot  pierces 
his  soul,  — “ My  sister,  I need  this  salvation  ; I will  go  and 
pray.”  Sabbath  night  finds  him  weeping  on  the  floor,  “ My 
sins,  my  sins.”  Monday  morning  sees  him  full  of  the  love  of 


20 


THE  DIVINE  FORCES  OF  THE  GO  SPED 


Christ,  and  he  can  only  say,  “ My  great  sins,  and  my  great 
Saviour.”  Monday  noon  he  is  on  his  way  to  his  mountain 
home,  — “I  must  tell  my  friends  and  neighbors  of  sin  and  of 
Christ.”  For  eleven  years,  thenceforth,  the  mountains  rever- 
berated with  his  “ hymns  of  lofty  cheer,”  as  he  threaded  their 
passes  to  lead  men  to  Christ,  till,  when  the  fatal  fever  was  upon 
him,  his  voice  died  away,  still  calling  to  the  end,  “ Free  grace. 
O it  was  free  grace,  free  grace.” 

Yes,  our  gospel  has  been  reaching  below  the  lowest  depths  of 
the  heathen  character,  and  reversing  the  stream  of  human  na- 
ture. It  brought  the  Brahmin  to  eat  with  the  Mahar.  It  laid 
fast  hold  of  “ Wicked  Jack,”  the  Choctaw,  and  “Thief  Maghak,” 
the  Armenian.  It  made  Simon,  the  Dakota,  steadily  bear  to  be 
called  “ a woman  now.”  It  made  the  Zulu  renounce  his  polyg- 
amy, and  the  ferocious  robber  Hottentot,  Africaner,  became  a 
missionary’s  nurse  and  a fellow  worshipper  with  his  old  enemy 
Berend,  the  Griqua  chief.  The  British  officer  might  well  be  pro- 
foundly impressed  in  Fiji  by  the  sight  of  a great  worshipping  as- 
sembly, every  man  of  which,  fifteen  years  before,  had  been  a 
cannibal,  and  “ the  fatal  oven  was  still  in  sight.”  And  these 
changes  have  been  wrought  not  in  straggling  cases,  but  in  hun- 
dreds, and  in  even  hundreds  of  thousands  of  pagan  lives.  Syd- 
ney Smith’s  “ insuperable  ” difficulties  have  been  surmounted. 
Martyn’s  “ dead  body  ” has  been  raised.  Parkman’s  “ scarcely 
possible”  thing  had  been  abundantly  wrought  on  the  Indian 
character  before  his  book  was  published,  though  he  knew  it  not. 
He  might  have  seen  Christianized  and  civilized  Dakotas  by  the 
hundred,  men  who  periled  their  own  lives,  in  the  great  pagan 
uprising  and  slaughter,  that  not  a hair  of  the  missionaries’  heads 
should  perish. 

They  that  toiled  and  waited  were  abundantly  rewarded.  The 
fifty  converts  of  the  first  ten  years  at  Hawaii,  in  the  next  ten 
years  became  fifteen  thousand.  Where  Judson  saw  but  one 
Karen  inquirer  in  four  years,  there  are  now  little  less  than 
twenty  thousand  Baptist  church  members.  In  Madagascar,  for 
ten  years  without  a convert,  there  are  thirty-two  thousand 
church-members,  and  a quarter  of  a million  worshippers.  In  the 
Fiji  Islands,  where  the  missionaries  landed  thirty-six  years  ago, 
and  labored  long  with  slight  success,  there  are  twenty-two  thou- 


THE  DIVINE  FORCES  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  2 1 

sand  communicants  and  five  times  that  number  of  worshippers. 
Tahiti  is  reconstructed.  The  Wesleyans  reckon  ten  thousand 
church  members  in  Southeastern  Africa.  The  three  hundred 
and  fifty  Chinese  converts  of  1853,  had  become  eight  thousand 
in  1868.  And  so  down  the  scale,  where  the  figures  still  are  not 
by  thousands,  but  by  hundreds  and  by  tens,  the  narratives  of  all 
the  stations,  with  whatever  moans,  came  laden  with  continual 
contrasts  of  “ then  and  now.”  It  is  often  bitter  sowing  and 
blessed  reaping.  They  who  disparage  the  results  of  missions 
know  not  whereof  they  speak.  Herein  is  that  saying  true,  “ The 
most  contemptible  thing  is  contempt.” 

So  superhumanly  does  this  divine  agency  work  its  way,  that 
the  foul  pool  of  corruption  becomes  a fountain  of  life.  Men  and 
women  whose  very  atmosphere  was  pollution,  carry  spiritual 
healing.  The  God  who  could  make  one  stolen  Testament  at 
Agana  bring  the  thief  and  three  comrades  to  its  heavenly  light, 
has  shown  Himself  able  to  do  the  more  wonderful  thing,  — to 
make  the  Indian,  the  Hawaiian,  the  Fiji,  the  Hindoo,  the  Sha- 
nar,  the  Zulu,  and  the  Chinese,  as  well  as  the  Armenian,  spread 
the  same  life.  It  was  a slow  lesson  for  the  missionary  to  learn, 
that  the  gospel  in  a heathen  heart  was  still  a divine  seed,  and 
had  a self-propagating  power.  They  dared  not  trust  it : but 
God’s  providence  forced  upon  them  the  truth.  For  twenty  years 
the  French  rule  excluded  English  missionaries  from  Tahiti ; but 
the  native  force  aroused  itself,  furnished  the  churches  with  home- 
born  pastors,  and  filled  them  up  to  three  thousand  communi- 
cants. For  nearly  twenty-five  years,  in  Madagascar,  did  a more 
than  Neronian  persecution  expel  the  missionaries,  and  with  two 
hundred  modes  of  punishment  attempt  to  strangle  the  church. 
But  when  the  missionaries  returned,  they  found  near  three  thou- 
sand communicants  in  place  of  the  two  hundred  they  had  left. 
And  now  the  offshoot  missions  in  Micronesia,  Marquesas,  Koor- 
distan,  and  elsewhere,  have  brought  us  fully  to  know  that  a true 
church  in  a pagan  land  is  a young  Banyan  tree,  and  that  in  due 
time  the  main  hope  of  every  race,  are  native  hearts  filled  with 
the  love  of  God. 

In  the  same  process  we  have  learned  by  actual  experiment 
that  the  greater  includes  the  less.  Christianity  is  the  shortest 
path  to  civilization.  We  have  long  ceased  to  send  the  farmer 


22 


THE  DIVINE  FORCES  OF  THE  GOSPEL. 


and  the  blacksmith  to  the  Hawaiian  and  the  Indian.  They 
come  uncalled.  The  Dakota  wigwam  has  grown  into  a frame  or 
brick  house,  and  the  hunting  ground  into  well  tilled  farms. 
Many  an  African  kraal,  where  Christ  has  entered,  has  changed 
to  a neatly  furnished  home.  Five  hundred  plows  were  sold  in 
one  year  to  the  natives  of  Port  Natal  alone.  One  missionary 
has  ordered  a hundred  fanning  mills  for  Turkey.  And  Hagop 
Effendi,  after  a tour  of  inspection  through  his  native  country, 
boldly  averred,  that  “the  most  zealous  advocate  of  American  civ- 
ilization could  not  have  done  half  so  much”  to  Americanize  Tur- 
key “ as  the  missionary  has  done.”  It  is  not  commerce,  but  the 
Word  of  God,  that  is  giving  a literature  to  scores  of  languages 
never  before  reduced  to  writing.  It  is  not  the  trader,  but  the 
missionary,  who  is  carrying  the  English  tongue,  and  Anglo- 
Saxon  civilization,  around  this  globe. 

But  to  my  thoughts  the  strangest  thing  of  all  is  the  petty 
human  force  that  has  done  it  all.  Verily,  the  cheapest  enginery 
that  this  world  has  seen  is  the  missionary.  Never  did  such  a 
handful  of  money  and  of  men  do  so  much  work.  When  I re- 
member that  all*  the  male  missionaries  of  this  Board  from  the 
beginning  have  been  scarcely  half  .a  regiment,  and  its  annual 
expenditure  half  the  cost  of  an  ironclad  man-of-war,  that  the 
money  laid  out  for  forty-six  years  in  raising  Hawaii  to  its  place 
among  the  nations  was  less  than  in  the  three  years’  expedition 
of  Commodore  Wilkes  in  the  Pacific,  and  the  whole  expenditure 
of  the  American  Board  for  six-and-fifty  years,  less  than  the  cost 
of  a hundred  and  fifty  miles  of  Massachusetts  railway,  I know 
not  which  most  to  admire,  the  feebleness  of  the  instrumentality, 
or  the  matchless  magnifying  and  fructifying  power  of  God.  I 
know  not  whether  most  to  blush  for  the  Christian  zeal  of  the 
churches,  or  to  extol  the  glorious  workings  of  their  infinite 
Head.  Verily,  the  weakness  of  God  is  stronger  than  men,  and 
the  foolishness  of  God  is  wiser  than  men. 

The  foremost  reflection  which  comes  from  my  theme  to-night 
is  the  duty  boldly  to  set  forth  and  earnestly  to  invoke  these  di- 
vine elements  of  our  religion,  both  abroad  and  at  home.  I say 
at  home.  For  our  pulse  now  beats  round  the  world.  The  mis- 
sionaries have  lately  assured  us  that  they  feel  in  Calcutta  the  in- 


TIIE  DIVINE  FORCES  OF  THE  GOSPEL. 


23 


fidelity  of  Christendom,  and  our  “ eclipse  of  faith  ” has  made 
the  educated  Hindoo  slower  of  belief.  We  are  driven  to  look  at 
our  own  foundations,  and  to  see  that  we  are  strong  in  the  Lord 
and  in  the  power  of  his  might.  While,  therefore,  we  carefully 
discern  the  signs  of  the  times  ; while  we  industriously  subsidize 
learning  and  culture,  wealth  and  ability,  wisdom  and  energy  ; 
and  while  we  seek  out  acceptable  words  ; we  will  yet  remember 
well  that  the  true  weapons  of  our  warfare  are  not  carnal  but 
spiritual.  These  alone  are  mighty  to  pull  down  strongholds. 
We  put  them  in  the  fore  front  of  the  battle.  In  the  name  of 
God  will  we  set  up  our  banner.  We  glory  in  its  unearthly  de- 
vice. In  the  face  of  all  the  physics  and  the  metaphysics,  of  all 
the  “ higher  criticism  ” and  the  lower,  we  “ believe  in  God,  the 
Father,  Almighty  ; and  in  his  only  begotten  Son,  Jesus  Christ, 
our  Lord  ; who  was  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary  by  the  Holy 
Ghost,  was  crucified  under  Pontius  Pilate,  buried,  on  the  third 
day  arose  from  the  dead,  ascended  to  the  heavens,  sitteth  on  the 
right  hand  of  the  Father,  whence  He  will  come  to  judge  the 
quick  and  the  dead  ; and  in  the  Holy  Ghost  ; the  holy  church  ; 
the  forgiveness  of  sins  ; the  resurrection  of  the  body.”  1 Believ- 
ing these  things,  and  more  also,  we  will  breathe  them  in  and 
speak  them  out.  The  boldness  of  the  foe  shall  be  our  teacher. 
The  faith  of  the  scientist  shall  stimulate  our  confidence.  We 
admire  the  serene  conviction  which,  in  spite  of  grave  objections, 
still  believes  the  interior  of  our  planet  to  be  one  molten  mass. 
We  almost  wonder  at  the  wide,  firm  acceptance  of  La  Place’s 
brilliant  theory,  chiefly  because  it  will  explain  the  phenomena  of 
the  universe  ; when  it  does  not  explain  the  presence  of  comets, 
nor  the  inclined  axis  and  elliptic  orbits  of  the  planets,  and  is 
seemingly  contradicted  by  the  retrogade  motion  of  Uranus’s 
satellites,  by  the  fantastic,  various,  and  varying  forms  of  the  neb- 
ulae, and  now  at  last  by  the  negative  results  of  the  solar  spec- 
trum. We  hold  our  breath  before  that  precipitous  assurance 
which  claims  all  the  infinite  species  of  being  to  have  come  by 
evolution,  when  it  has  not  yet  been  proved  of  one.  But  we 
quarrel  not  with  science.  All  her  theories  will  we  accept  — 
when  proved.  But  we  will  “ hold  fast  that  which  is  good,”  and 


1 The  “ Apostles’  Creed  ” of  the  fourth  century. 


24  THE  DIVINE  FORCES  OF  THE  GOSPEL. 


proved  good  for  two  thousand  years.  Not;one  hair’s  breadth 
will  we  swerve  from  our  great  central  creed  ; for  therein,  to  a 
great  degree,  “we  speak  that  we  do  know,  and  testify  that  we 
have  seen.”  Boldly  we  range  our  higher  sphere.  Science  may 
modify  our  reckonings  of  time  ; it  cannot  touch  the  concerns  of 
eternity.  It  may  elucidate  the  method  of  God’s  workings  ; it  is 
dumb  before  the  fact.  The  telescope  can  never  reach  God.  The 
microscope  can  never  find  this  struggling,  heaving  soul.  No 
chemical  or  metaphysical  test  can  solve  the  terrific  fact  and 
mystery  of  sin.  No  hospital  registry  can  measure  the  power  of 
prayer.  No  agency  known  to  science  can  renovate  one  moral 
character,  nor  relieve  one  sin-burdened  soul.  No  roamings 
among  the  stars,  or  crawlings  through  the  earth’s  crust,  can  in- 
validate the  change  wrought  in  one  believing  heart.  All  the 
cavils  of  all  the  cavilers  about  the  historic  Christ  go  down  be- 
fore the  presence  of  the  living  Christ,  as  he  perpetually  en- 
thrones himself  in  millions  of  human  hearts,  with  a deathless 
power  and  a quenchless  love,  which  the  Great  Emperor  owned 
he  could  but  feebly  imitate  by  his  personal  presence  on  the  field 
of  battle.  The  humblest  saint  has  in  himself  evidences  which 
neither  Strauss  nor  Baur  can  disturb.  The  boldest  array  of 
scoffers  melt  away  before  the  mighty  outpouring  of  the  Spirit. 
Dealing  thus  with  facts  and  truths  that  are  deeper  than  reason- 
ings, closer  than  testimonies,  and  higher  than  cavilings,  we  will 
“ turn  us  to  our  stronghold.”  No  Nebular  Hypothesis  shall  con- 
strain us  to  preach  a nebulous  gospel.  Positivism  shall  not  be 
more  positive  than  our  truth.  We  reverently  accept  the  very  al- 
ternative presented  to  us  — Jesus  Christ,  God,  or  a madman  — 
and  in  the  strength  of  that  ancient  promise  of  his,  “ Lo,  I am 
with  you  always,”  do  we  venture  forth.  We  will  proclaim  a 
Godhead  that  is  more  than  a “ Fatherhood  ; ” a Saviour  that  is 
more  than  the  most  thrilling  of  tragedians,  or  the  most  fascinat- 
ing of  fellow-sufferers  ; an  atonement  that  is  more  than  at-one- 
ment ; regeneration  that  is  higher  and  deeper  than  reforma- 
tion. 

Nor  will  we  for  one  moment  deceive  ourselves  as  to  what  con- 
stitutes Christian  success  on  either  field.  Perhaps  no  age  has 
been  more  sadly  tempted  to  mistake  the  popularity  for  the  power 
of  religion.  The  kingdom  of  God  in  our  day  cometh  with  obser- 


THE  DIVINE  FORCES  OF  THE  GOSPEL. 


25 


vation.  Huge  church  rivalries  heat  up  our  blood,  vast  church 
machineries  captivate  our  sight,  grand  church  parades  impose  on 
our  carnal  minds.  But  we  will  never  forget  that  all  this  outward, 
seeming  success,  may  be  real  defeat  of  the  kingdom  of  God  with- 
in, and  the  open  triumph  of  the  world,  with  its  pride  of  life ; that 
the  immense  congregation  gathered  and  held  by  secular  attrac- 
tions may  be  thoroughly  secular  ; that  great  riches  in  the  church, 
unconsecrated,  are  its  deep  poverty  and  curse,  and  the  ingather- 
ings of  the  world’s  great  men,  unless  they  “ become  as  little 
children,”  its  weakness  and  snare  ; that  enormous  rentals  may 
stand  in  bitter  mockery  of  the  scanty  charities  ; that  the  costly 
sanctuary  may  dry  up  the  streams  of  beneficence  ; that  fashion- 
able piety  may  garnish  the  sepulchre  of  a crucified  religion. 
Away  with  these  false  standards  and  estimates,  these  great, 
flaunting  shadows.  Give  us  back  the  church  that  is  built,  not  of 
granite  nor  marble,  but  of  lively  stones,  a spiritual  house  ; and 
enthroned  therein  Him  who  is  a stumbling  block  and  foolishness 
to  the  Jew  and  the  Greek  of  all  ages,  but  unto  them  that  are 
called,  the  wisdom  of  God  and  the  power  of  God.  And  es- 
pecially will  we  rejoice  in  this,  our  foreign  mission  work,  that 
here  at  last  we  are  brought  and  held  face  to  face  with  the  naked 
elements  and  most  glorious  workings  of  our  gospel.  We  are 
glad  to  think  with  the  senior  Alexander,  that  each  young  mis- 
sionary does  as  much  for  his  native  land  as  though  he  had  re- 
mained at  home.  And  we  know  that  the  whole  reflex  influence 
of  our  great  enterprise,  in  recalling  these  home  churches  to  the 
primal  truths  and  primal  agencies  of  our  religion,  is  most  benign 
and  blessed.  Is  it  not  true,  that  with  all  our  popularities  and  out- 
ward successes,  what  the  church  most  needs  to-day  is  — I will 
not  say  a revival  of  Puritanism,  for  God  never  exactly  repeats 
Himself — but  a Puritan  revival ; yes,  a Persian,  or  an  Hawaiian, 
or  an  Armenian  revival,  with  its  deep  heart-searchings,  its  pro- 
found convictions  of  sin,  righteousness,  and  judgment,  its  mighty 
self-denials  and  glorious  heroisms,  its  dauntless  hopes,  and  its 
ringing  declarations  of  the  whole  counsel  of  God. 

The  theme  speaks  to  us,  finally,  with  a new  and  cheerful  sum- 
mons to  Christian  and  missionary  activity.  We  labor  in  hope. 
Our  strength  is  not  in  ourselves  and  our  fellows,  weak  and 
foolish,  but  in  the  infinite  wisdom  and  strength.  We  look  out 


26  THE  DIVINE  FORCES  OF  THE  GOSPEL. 


over  a scene  of  flickering  light  and  shade.,  We  contend  with 
' discouragements  ever  changing,  but  always  renewed.  The  path- 
way of  light  always  comes  to  us  through  a continent  of  darkness. 
But  we  lean  on  One  who  makes  no  mistakes,  and  suffers  no 
defeats  ; who  never  wearies  and  never  hurries  ; who  works  on 
while  men  wake  and  while  they  sleep,  while  they  are  born  and 
while  they  die,  while  they  fume  and  fret  and  pass  away.  We  rest 
on  the  promise  of  One  who  cannot  lie.  We  sow  a seed  which 
we  know  will  germinate.  We  have  embarked  in  the  only  enter- 
prise that  is  certain  to  prevail.  Whether  we  turn  our  eyes  to 
the  amazing  obstacles  which  still  retard  Christ’s  kingdom  abroad, 
or  to  the  dangers  that  threaten  it  here,  — in  the  glaciers  of  skep- 
ticism that  creep  in  on  our  eastern  coast,  or  the  massive  echelon 
of  paganism  that  pushes  upon  the  western  coast,  we  foresee  the 
end.  We  have  no  fears  nor  regets,  nor  complaints  that  our 
numbers  are  few  or  our  resources  small.  Except  for  their  own 
sake,  we  have  no  laments  to  utter  for  the  great  men  who  have 
no  part  with  us,  or  for  the  brilliant  youth  wrho  are  said  to  turn 
their  backs  on  Christ’s  cause  for  the  attractions  of  wealth  and 
worldly  honor.  We  need  no  man  who  is  faint-hearted  or  half- 
hearted. For,  thank  God,  Christian  manhood  and  Christian 
heroism  are  not  dead,  nor  will  they  die  while  God  lives.  And 
many,  very  many,  of  the  best  types  of  apostolic  manhood  in  our 
day  are  to  be  found  in  the  missionary  work. 

I speak  to-night  under  the  shadow  of  a great  University. 
And  I speak  to  some  who  are  pondering  their  future  course  — 
whether  they  shall  surrender  to  this  Saviour  ; whether  they  shall 
take  part  in  this  ministry  ; whether  they  shall  engage  in  this 
mission  enterprise  ; or  whether  they  shall  run  the  race  of  earth, 
in  commerce,  in  science,  in  art,  in  civil  or  professional  life.  Far 
be  it  from  me  to  disparage  any  of  the  spheres  of  human  activity 
and  duty.  When  good  men  fill  them,  they  can  be  brimful  of 
goodness.  There  are  riches  which  are  alike  blessed  in  the  get- 
ting and  the  spending ; sciences  so  pursued  as  to  ennoble  the 
man  and  his  race  ; learning  and  art  which  are  the  handmaids  of 
religion  ; professional  services  which  honor  Christ ; and  a states- 
manship that  fears  God.  But  these  sometimes  seem  to  be  but 
the  drop  in  the  bucket.  The  ignoble  wealth,  the  godless  science, 
the  Christless  ambition,  these  are  Satan’s  lures,  and  they  sing 


THE  DIVINE  FORCES  OF  THE  GOSPEL. 


27 


around  you  with  a thousand  siren  voices.  But  before  you  turn 
finally  down  thither,  we  show  unto  you  a more  excellent  way, — 
manlier,  Godlike ; the  path  of  him  who  “ pleased  not  himself.” 
We  invite  you  to  a goodly  fellowship.  From  the  venerable  roll 
of  your  own  alumni  illustrious  voices  of  the  dead  call  you  to  this 
work.  Early  secretaries  of  this  Board  — your  Evarts,  bringing 
the  elements  of  a great  lawyer  and  a statesman  to  lay  them  on 
the  altar,  saying,  “ Only  let  me  be  employed  for  Christ  and  the 
heathen  ; ” your  versatile  and  beloved  Cornelius,  declaring  it  the 
highest  happiness  of  his  life  to  labor  for  the  cause  of  missions  ; 
your  Greene,  with  his  calmness,  clearness,  and  sturdy  manhood, 
asserting  to  the  last  his  “ever-rising  estimate  of  the  excellency 
and  honorableness  of  the  foreign  missionary  work  ; ” these  all 
speak  to  you  of  a higher  purpose.  Honored  missionary  pioneers, 

— your  Meigs,  from  Ceylon  ; Thurston,  from  Hawaii ; Ball,  from 
China ; and  Eli  Smith,  from  Syria,  call  on  you  to  rise  and  follow. 
Later  voices  bring  you  the  message.  Your  Stoddard  shouts  to 
you,  “ My  desire  to  return  to  Persia  is  like  a fire  in  my  bones.” 
Your  young  missionary  patriot  Schneider  whispers  to  you,  as 
“ on  his  knees,  and  with  tears,”  he  gives  himself  and  his  fine 
scholarship  to  God,  exclaiming,  “ I wish  I had  more,  so  as  to 
give  it  all.”  And  the  voice  of  the  well-beloved  Walker  still 
hovers  over  the  churches  where,  with  self-consuming  fire,  he 
sought  to  kindle  the  missionary  flame,  and  to  you  he  seems  to 
preach  again  from  £)iarbekir  that  sermon  of  his  last  Sabbath  on 
earth,  “ The  Master  has  come  and  calleth  for  thee.”  O,  may 
the  mantle  of  the  noble  dead  — and  the  Spirit  of  the  living  God 

— rest,  young  men,  on  you. 


